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' @uiten tats-5 @anni @Hirn GEORGE V. SHEFFIELD AND JAMES F. COBURN, 0F HOPKINTON, MASSA- CHUSETTS.

Letters Patent No. 64,587, dated May 7, 1867.

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TO` ALL WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:' i

Be it known that we, GEoRGnV. SHEFFIELD and JAMES F. COBURN, both of 'Hoplzinton7 in the county of Middlesex, and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Preparing Leather for l/Vear; and we do hereby declare that the following, taken in connection with the drawings which accompany and form part of this specification, is a description of our invention sufficient to enable those skilled in the art to practise it.-

I To improve the wearing quality of boot and shoe soles their surfaces have sometimes had inserted in them plugs, nails, stubs, or hobs, thesebeing generallyheaded, and generally driven into holes prepared for their reception by punching out or removing the leather at the points"where they were to enter. In those soles in which the holes are punched for the reception of plugs or stubs, such plugs or stubs soon work loose, and v where they are headed the pressure upon the edges of the heads causes a lateral playof the shanks, and increases this liability to work loose. Where nails arc sometimes driven in this treading upon the heads-disposs the nails to loosen, and the wear against such heads tends te force the points through the soles and into the feet of the wearer. And where sprigs are sometimes driven in their points press throgh the sole, and their Wedging formation disposes'them towork out from the sole. v

The object of our invention is to improve the wearing quality of boot and shoe soles, and of other leather surfaces subjected to attrition and abrasion, such, for instance, as leather belting. lTo accomplish this we fill the wearing surface of the leather with short pieces or sections of wire, uniform in diameter throughout the length of cach, and driven into the solo by piercing or displacing the leather, (in contradistinction to removing the leather for their insertion by punchingl out pieces of diameter approximating to the thickness of the metal to be driven into the leather the wires being cut oif flush with' the wearing surface of the leather; and it is in this preparation of the wearing'gsurface of leather that our invention consists, or in leather, the wearing surface of which is studdedv or tilledwith short wires or pins, each of uniform diameter, driven into the said surface by lateral displacement of. the leather, and cut 'ofi' flush with the wearing surface of the leather.

The drawings represent abottom View and a cross-section of a shoe sole having this constructiona denoting the sole and 6 the wires o1` pins. To insert these wires it is necessary to support each while being driven inla tube of diameter corresponding to thc wire7 and striking a driver against each pin While the surface 0f the sdzle is held up against the bottom of the tube; and we prefer to use for this purpose the machine patented by nsSe'ptember 4, 1856, (No. 57,7S0,) but other means for effecting the insertion may be employed. In preparing soles wc rgenerally prefer to apply the wires to tap soles, and before the same are attached to boots and shoes, using a small metal wire of about fifteen or twenty-one gauge. In employing the mechanism embodied in our patent above referred to the leather is preferably' so supported with reference tothe cutting and driving mechanism that the wires driven into the wearing surface do not come quite through to the opposite surface. This is the disposition shown in the sectional view of the'drawing, and is, 0n some accounts, preferable to driving them entirely through the sole. The durability of soles thus made and applied is greatly increased, and there is no tendency in the pins or wires to press through the inner surface of the sole, or to work loose.

We claim the improvement in preparing leather for wear, substantially as set forth. JAMES F. COBURN, Vitnesscs to J. F. COBURN: y GEORGE V. SHEFFIELD.

J. ALVIN Continu, BENJ. F. COBURN.

Witnesses t-o G. V. Snurrintn:

J. B. CROSBY, F. Gouw. 

